use Case: Mind Mapping in Healthcare

Some of the main arguments for mind map usage by healthcare providers and industries are outlined in this segment. It begins by introducing briefly the main principles of the mind mapping technique and the general benefits this productivity-enhancer technique offers to healthcare professionals. At the end a few mind map examples are presented, that could be of use to healthcare professionals.

Healthcare professionals, practitioners, and providers can work in hospitals or healthcare centers where they provide care and treatment for patients.

All people working in the healthcare industry have something in common: they handle important medical projects and manage a vast amount of information that is valuable.

Because of the type of work they do, they are in need of a practical tool that will allow organizing and visualizing the information in a better way which consequently will increase their productivity and self-organization.

Organizing of vast or complex information

A mind map is a helpful tool for organizing data and information.

Whether that information is large in volume, or it is just of a complex nature, mind maps, especially those created with a mind mapping software, can organize and make a logical summary of the information, thus making it easy for people to understand and focus on key points.

Task planning and prioritization

When it comes to task planning and management, mind maps can help people to organize tasks around a few primary guidelines and prioritize accordingly. Mind maps can very well be used as a guiding point create a task-plan where you will set timings, mark them by importance, elaborate the purpose and outcome of each and nominate who will be the responsible for their completion and control.

Generating fresh ideas and new concepts

The general purpose of organic mind maps is the facilitation of creative processes, idea generation, and brainstorming. The color palettes and images included in a mind map can help a person when writing down ideas to further develop them by following the flow of the organic mind map branches.

Improving administrative task performance

Administrative task performance can be improved with mind maps because they allow users to make meticulous organization and prioritization and make sure every important piece of information is linked to the map for the specific tasks. All topics included in the mind map can have links to documents, images or websites that have important information that needs to be addressed while working on the subject.

Supporting managerial and control activities

Mind maps can be of great help when doing regular check-ups and monitor employees' activities. The employee appraisal can be documented and evaluated within mind maps, which is a great way to see where the organization stands with its human resources. Also, mind maps can be used for inventory and supply control, by easily comparing the actual situation with the previously planned and make a solid base for future planning of that sort.

Enhancing communication and coordination

Healthcare professionals that use mind maps can also experience improvement in the team communication and coordination. They can use mind maps to organize and plan their workload and can also share them with the team.

Moreover, they can even compose mind maps in a group and then use them as a reference in their team activities.

Using mind maps, people will see an improvement in their team communication and coordination because every team member will spend their working hours more focused on priority subjects. The communication is an element that can simplify the working process, make tasks and ideas more comprehensive to everyone, and can save time and money.

Improving problem solving

Mind maps are a great way to solve problems or manage contingency plans while in crisis, by helping the user to see the important overall picture. In a mind map can be presented major arguments, along with the pros and cons. The differences or imbalances can be also more easily examined and analyzed, thus making the problem-solving process faster and assuring possibility for analysis of major elements.

Responding to inquiries

Healthcare bodies can respond faster to citizens' or patients' inquiries if they have the important information to hand. Mind maps can help them to share all needed input and output of information to the general public and establish a suitable scheme for answering all of their inquiries on time.

Recollecting and memorizing data

A Mind map can aid the memorization and recollection of information since it is a visual form of presenting data. A study by Farrand, Hussain, and Hennessey (2002) found that mind mapping improved the long-term memory of factual information in medical students by 10%.

Note-taking and meeting management

Mind mapping can replace the traditional note-taking and can be used for meeting management.

Specifically, mind maps can help you to plan an agenda for the meeting, as well as to easily arrange and manage a particular meeting.

Moreover, it can help you to take notes more effectively by the use of short phrases and keywords instead of whole sentences.